Eco-consciousness is becoming a priority for many of us in our daily lives, making switches to more sustainable ways of living and shopping, and the hospitality industry is no different.

The hotel industry currently accounts for approximately 1% of global carbon emissions and this is set to increase if old practices continue. The Sustainable Hospitality Alliance estimates that hotels need to reduce their carbon emissions by 66% per room by 2030 to play their part in combating climate change.

Eco friendly hotel trends are now emerging in more and more hotels across the world. From reducing water usage to larger scale projects to reduce carbon emissions, there is plenty that any management team can do to follow in the footsteps of the latest sustainable hotel ideas and trends.

Minimizing water waste and usage

An easy place to start shifting towards more eco-friendly hotel trends is to take steps to minimize water usage and waste throughout your hotel.

While guests are entirely in control of how much water they use in their rooms, you can encourage them to consider using water more mindfully. Leave small signs or cards in bathrooms or near sinks to suggest how much water they could be saving if they only run the tap for as long as they need it or take shorter showers. You could also encourage your guests by adding some information to these signs or cards, showing them what your management team does every day to help save water.

Reduce plastic throughout your hotel

Millions of tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans every day. Reducing plastic is another simple way to help your hotel to reduce its carbon footprint and avoid adding to the global plastic waste problem. Some easy swaps are switching out your plastic straws for glass or metal ones, or changing up plastic water bottles for reusable glass ones. Not only will these simple solutions help your hotel become more environmentally friendly, but they will also give a classier feel.

Switch to wooden keycards

While on your journey to reducing plastic throughout your hotel or resort, you may realize that even your keycards are made of plastic! Consider switching to a more sustainable alternative such as our RFID Wooden Hotel Key Cards. Made using bamboo, a sustainable and incredibly durable alternative to plastic, that keeps the RFID chip safe. Click on the link to learn how RFID technology works.

What’s even better, wooden hotel keycards can be easily customized. Choose a custom shape or engrave with text or your hotel logo to create a boutique experience for your guests.

Become paperless

Technology and email are fast replacing paper receipts, bills and other documents across a range of industries. Often paper receipts can be lost or are immediately thrown away after issuing. To help reduce paper waste, consider switching your room bills and restaurant or bar receipts from paper to digital format such as email.

Using a digital document management system can also help to improve file organization and management, and make documents easily accessible to staff wherever they are stationed across your hotel or resort.

Opt for local produce

Give your guests a greater flavor of the place they are visiting, and reduce your carbon emissions at the same time by switching to local produce for food preparation.

Buying from local produce suppliers reduces the distance that your produce order has to travel, reducing emissions from transportation, as well as giving you the opportunity to support local businesses in the process.

Reduce food waste

When considering making the switch to local produce for your food preparation, it can also be useful to review how much food each of your catering outlet wastes on a daily or weekly basis.

Some waste is unpreventable when catering for a large number of people, but understanding where unnecessary waste is occurring throughout your hotel can aid you in putting a plan in place. Helping you to become more eco-friendly and save money in the long run.

Consider biophilic design on a large scale

Looking at your hotel on a larger scale, you may notice that there are changes that you could make to the architecture and design of your buildings to make them more sustainable, and create an encompassing eco-friendly environment for your guests.

Replacing metal beams with natural materials such as dark hardwood, harnessing more natural light with considerate window placements or even creating a living plant wall to bring a burst of green into your lobby space can enhance your space.

Creating an environment for staff and guests that is more visually connected to nature may not have such a large impact on the sustainability of your hotel as a whole. But it is fast becoming one of the most popular sustainable hotel trends for its creative design and incorporation of more natural elements and plants into architecture.

Monitor your carbon emissions

Even simple steps can help to reduce your emissions, such as turning off air conditioning in unoccupied spaces, utilizing more natural light, or take these eco-friendly hotel ideas to the next level and switch to renewable energy sources to power your buildings.

To keep you on track when implementing these sustainable hotel ideas, consider monitoring your carbon emissions regularly. Place updates or achievements on signs or cards throughout your hotel to encourage your guests to participate in your mission.

Join sustainable hotel trends with ID&C

More sustainable hotel ideas are evolving each day as more and more of us are becoming more environmentally conscious. Taking even just one of two of these ideas into consideration can help your hotel or resort to play its part.

At ID&C we have developed a range of eco-friendly products suitable for events, conferences, leisure facilities, hotels, and more. Our RFID wooden hotel key cards are a great place to get your business started on the road to a more sustainable future. Available to customize and make them truly your own. Get in touch with us today to get started designing your wooden hotel key cards and make the first step towards adopting more sustainable hotel ideas.